Last night's practice was a lot of hard pushing endurance and scrimmaging bouts (in preparation for our upcoming bout next weekend)...man did it wipe my ass out!
Normally we start up with 25 laps then a stretch out but last night the team leaders pushed us all on some hard moving pace line drills for a good long while. I can't tell you how long precisely but I can tell you it was a Hell of a lot more than 25 laps. Since I am still too slow to keep up with pace line I skated the outside with some of the other freshies. At one point we were going to head off to the side to lay out cones to practice our weaving and cutting but then Mouth informed us that if the rest of the pack were pushing it then we had to as well and sent us back to the outside for more laps. And, he was right...in retrospect I am glad he didn't let us off that easy. It was very tiring, especially so since it was a very windy day. Struggling against 20 mph winds sucks. By the end my legs were shaky, my back hurt like hell (skating an oval half bent and half twisted in one direction wreaks havoc on your lower back), and I was panting like a dog, lol.
The bulk of the practice was spent scrimmaging against each other. Mostly we did freshies (I am the 'rawest' of the freshies but they use the term to describe anyone who has yet to bout) versus veterans. Frank (the coach) prepped us by saying that if he felt anyone of us was a danger to ourselves or the rest of the pack, or were simply not able to keep up as we should, he would tap us out and put us to outside laps rather than scrimmaging. So I was pretty well sure that I would scrimmage once then get sent to laps again.
I was very surprised that he didn't tap me out after my first attempt at scrimmaging...I was about a half a lap behind the rest of the pack the entire time. Man, those girls fly! They were going especially fast (for a pack) because the vets were not playing with a jammer (and therefore had no reason to slow down). But, while I heard a few shouts from the sidelines to move my feet, I did not get sent for laps so I waited my turn for a second go round.
In all subsequent turns I kept up better. Still slow in comparison but able to push it hard enough to stay within 20 feet of the pack. I didn't get any real solid hits in but I did get a couple of decent bumps on a few girls. I did, at one point, have their jammer (when they started using one) positionally blocked even if for a brief shining second. If there had been another member of my team there with me to keep her trapped it would have been an awesome play. And on several occasions I even managed to squirt up to the front of the opposing team's wall to try to slow/control them...I'm not effective at holding people back yet but it's nice to know I can get forward enough to try.
I never got tapped out. Yay! And at the end Frank came up to tell me that I had done a really good job. Super yay!
It was a great practice as I learned a lot about the game and bouting. I also picked up some good nuggets to store away for future use from some of the vets about how to better myself. Good times!
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I also got to participate in my first team meeting on Monday. I was intimidated at first, being the n00b and all, but it was great to feel like an active participant. I may not be able to bout or even keep up in all the practice drills yet but I am determined to be an asset to the team in any way that I can off skates as well.
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